1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to energy management through heat recovery, and more particularly to systems, computer readable media, program product/code, and methods for providing enhanced energy design and retrofit of, and greenhouse gas reduction for, eco-industrial parks through enhanced energy recovery methodologies and system designs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Industrial clusters/symbiosis played a significant role in the economic growth of many countries. Recognized by the inventors is that the industrial ecology concept can promote a new path of local development through the transition from industrial clusters to Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs). Further recognized is that this can be accomplished by exploiting common features of both models such as, for example, the geographic proximity of time-dependent and non-dependent plants and the non-industrial community, such as malls, hospitals, hotels, housing compounds, schools and so on. Accordingly, also recognized is that implementing the eco-industrial parks' principles in an existing industrial cluster or in the planning of new ones, represents a significant opportunity for its revitalization. For example, eco-industrial parks could potentially exploit synergies from industrial clusters and non-industrial activities to create new production models in which the economic and environmental dimensions are symbiotic.
Prior eco-industrial parks' key to success has been a sequence of independent economically driven actions. Such evolutionary pattern followed to date by countries like Denmark, for example, may not be easily transferred from conventional industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks locations and/or Greenfield development. Accordingly, recognized by the inventors is the need for and benefit of a holistic/revolutionary approach in addressing the problem, using novel methodologies and tools, followed by an evolutionary approach in implementing necessary modifications in either contaminated Brownfields or in the planning/design of Greenfields.
The applicable literatures show that it is very difficult, with the current state-of-art methods and tools, to manufacture eco-industrial parks to work from scratch. First, there should be the basic ingredients in place, namely the desire of plants/firms/communities to actively participate/cooperate and the correct membership/mix and structure of firms. These basic ingredients can then be enhanced and improved upon with the correct support structure in place. The inventors recognize that a significant factor that can enhance the success of eco-industrial park is the presence of a large company which acts as a magnet for other companies. The inventors also recognize that the willingness to make the effort to determine the best connections among different industrial plants/firms and its surrounding communities in an eco-industrial park can be another significant factor in developing a successful eco-industrial park or transforming conventional industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks. Specifically, the material and energy flows' relationship among the different members in the alliance of plants/firms can permit establishing optimal linkage to form a fruitful inter-dynamic structure. If such structure does not exist, a successful eco-industrial park may not be able to be realized. The inventors further recognized that the emphasis for the eco-industrial park should be on a system approach, rather than focusing on specific streams. Accordingly, recognized is the need for systems, computer readable medium, program products/code, and methods which capitalize on such recognitions.
The sustainability concept is considered to have four dimensions, namely social, environmental, economic, and institutional. It is understood to be the improved management of natural resources within a business setting to provide economic and social benefits to the business and its surroundings. Eco-industrial parks can serve a significant role in realizing the economic, environmental and social benefits both to individual plants/companies as well as to network of plants/firms. As such, eco-industrial parks have been publicized as a means of reducing environmental damage through reduced waste, based on the literature case studies. Studies have shown that eco-industrial parks can have a number of benefits at different levels. The desire to attain financial gain irrespective of the environmental benefits, however, has historically been the major driving factor for the creation of most eco-industrial parks.
Besides other objectives, the conventional system concept of transitioning industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks and the planning and synthesis/design of the new ones for energy efficiency maximization and energy-based GHG emissions reduction, is the transfer of waste heat from one plant/firm to a nearby another. In other words, each plant/facility/firm in the eco-industrial park alliance allows the usage of its waste energy to be used by another adjacent plant/facility/firm. The energy waste of one company is used partially or totally in another adjacent one. Through waste integration cooperation, adjacent plants can save transportation costs and energy degradation during transit.
There are essentially three recognized approaches for transitioning industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks and the planning and synthesis/design of the new ones to attain the objectives of energy efficiency maximization and energy-based GHG emissions reduction, among others. The first approach is the ad hoc method which uses an obvious waste heat stream from a power plant in a nearby process, for example. This method, however, is not systematic and is far from efficient.
The second approach is the total site targeting method, which is based on the pinch technology, the most widely used to date in literature. This method allows waste heat from processes to be used as a source of heat in other processes. The waste heat sources are converted to steam, which through a steam system infrastructure, is utilized to pass the heat to processes that are in heat deficit. To identify the external heating and cooling requirements of a group of individual plants to be satisfied by a central utility system, for each of the individual plants, a thermal integration of its hot streams to be cooled and cold streams to be heated is performed using each individual plant's grand composite curve. The temperature/enthalpy data from respective individual plant is then extracted from the plant.
The grand composite curve defines each plant's thermal heat deficiency and thermal heat surplus after intra-plant heat integration. The collection of grand composite curves of the whole site are then used to graphically add all thermal deficiencies to draw the total site heating demand curve, and add all thermal surpluses to draw the total site cooling demand curves. The two curves are then superimposed on one graph with the existing and/or suggested steam generation levels and steam supplying levels to find the minimum total site external energy utilities requirement and naturally best indirect inter-plants thermal integration. In this method, intra-integration is accomplished first. Thereafter, any remaining waste heat (below pinch streams) of the plant is shared with other parks' members. The inventors recognize this methodology to be a reactive form of cooperation rather than a proactive form. Also, recognized is that this methodology results in a mismatch in number of steam levels required for eco-industrial park users in generation and utilization, which translates to undesirable energy loss. Further, while in literature, this method in its application is said to be able to address both time non-dependent and time dependent sites processes, the use of time as an optimization variable for hybrid inter-time-inter-systems energy integration is ignored.
Therefore, recognized by the inventors is the need for a methodology: that can accomplish inter-time zone and systems integration first; that can share the waste heat of multiple processes within each plant with each other plant; that can match the number of steam levels; that utilizes time as an optimization variable for hybrid inter-time-inter-systems energy integration; and that can modified time zone or zones boundaries/duration.
The third approach uses the mathematical programming method, which uses simplistic assumptions to be able to model whole city' industrial and non-industrial processes without resulting in a mathematically intractable problem. The inventors are open to the possibility that the mathematical programming method could, theoretically speaking, find best mass and energy integration among its members, and design the whole eco-industrial park energy utility system accordingly. Currently, however, there is no public domain literature describing how to use such approach in the retrofit or in the planning of new energy efficient eco-industrial park applications.
The state of-the-art software for transitioning industrial complexes to eco-industrial parks and for the planning and synthesis/design of the new ones for energy efficiency maximization and energy-based GHG emissions reduction, among other objectives, are extremely limited and almost non-existent. The most famous one is the Apentech Co. Total Site commercial software. Other decision support software for general eco-industrial park planning, namely “FaST”, “DIET” and “REaLiTy”, are database software with linear programming capability. These software are essentially focused on material exchange and only address very obvious waste heat exchange, where a waste heat stream in one plant/power station is used in other eco-industrial parks' plants.
Recognized by the inventors is that proper planning of new eco-industrial parks, and the transformation of conventional industrial complexes to an eco-industrial park, can bring significant value to energy efficiency. Further, recognized by the inventors is that the transition of an industrial complex's energy systems to, or synthesis of eco-industrial parks containing time dependent and non-dependent processes and tasks (referred to as industrial symbiosis), is a huge multi-variable multi-dimensional optimization problem in which the total eco-industrial park network depends on a factor as small as a single stream condition and as big as the whole park/city functionality. Also recognized by the inventors is that integration among multiple industrial and non-industrial plants/processes in adjacent geographical locations can bring in more degrees of freedom to optimize the “waste energy recovery,” and consequently, presents a new horizon for radical energy-based GHG emissions reduction.
Further recognized by the inventors is the need for a methodology for the simultaneous inter-time zones-inter-systems energy integration in industrial symbiosis where non-industrial community is also included, to attain new levels of energy saving and GHG emissions reduction using hybrid methods of integration. Additionally recognized is the need for a hybrid methodology that systematically looks to all options together and finds best combinations out of the available solutions package, while simultaneously considering both inter-time-zones and inter-systems energy integration.